"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." Margaret Mead, American anthropologist, 1901-1978
Their Buy One, Get One Tree offer has a twist – an under-the-sea twist. They’ve teamed up with the Marine Conservation Society to help protect seagrass.
This underwater grass is crucial in the fight against climate change.
Why? Well, seagrass absorbs 10% of the ocean’s carbon every year.
In fact, estimates are that seagrass can capture as much carbon per hectares as trees in UK woodlands. And seagrass is vital for marine life.
Unfortunately, 35% of seagrasses worldwide have been lost or damaged over the last 40 years – so Rapanui want to help the Marine Conservation Society do something about it.
This weekend (until midnight Sunday 14 June 2020), every order on the Rapa store will help the Marine Conservation Society protect 5 square feet of this wonder-plant in the UK's seas!
Visit Rapanui here – they have a wonderful range of t-shirts, hoodies, jackets, bundles, shirts and more!
The World Land Trust reports that wildlife were putting themselves at risk in Guatemala because they were getting close to urban areas.
So their conservation partner FUNDAECO introduced human-made watering holes and they have proved to be invaluable for wildlife – several species have been filmed using them.
This initiative came after the Caribbean was hit by longer summers and animals got closer to towns.
It only takes the team a few days to install each watering hole. The water holes will now be an annual part conservation. The plan is to roll these artificial water sources out on other reserves.
This means that wildlife will have access to water throughout the summer.
The first project the World Land Trust did with FUNDAECO was the purchase of 1,500 acres of lowland and inundated tropical forest. They created a reserve at Laguna Grande.
Today, they are still buying and protecting some of the last remaining wetlands and tropical forests in Caribbean Guatemala. Back in 2017, they started to create a new core reserve area in the Sierra Santa Cruz. And WLT supports FUNDAECO through its Keepers of the Wild Appeal – that funds rangers on the reserves.
The Marine Conservation Society wants to help vital seagrass around the south coast of England to recover.
Seagrass exists in the shallow, sheltered waters around the UK’s coast. It forms marine meadows and these are very productive ecosystems and biodiversity hotspots, with marine life such as the spiny seahorse and the short snouted seahorse. And cuttlefish and sharks breed here. They are also nurseries for Pollock, cod and plaice.
The climate is changing fast, and the impact is clear to see - bushfires, floods, storms, temperatures which are soring, melting ice sheets.
Seagrass can help tackle the changing climate. It is a flowering plant, and it lives underwater around the UK's coast in shallow, sheltered waters. Crucially, it absorbs 10% of the carbon buried in ocean sediment every year - so it's a great weapon in tackling global warming. The MCS says that it's estimated that seagrass around the UK shores can absorb and store at least as much carbon per hectare as trees in UK woodlands!
The problem is that a major threat to seagrass comes from traditional moorring methods - anchors and chais drag along the seabed.
If these traditional moorings can be repaced with advanced systems, where chains are raised off the seabed, it will be possible to regenerate marine meadows.
The MCS has trialled these and discovered that they work! So they want to expand it to five marine protected areas. This will enable them to better lock in carbon and be a safe protected habitat for seahorses, cuttlefish and juvenile fish.
The Marine Conservation Society needs to install advanced moorings to help replace damaging anchoring methods and let seagrass recover. And they are asking for donations to help them do just that.
How appeal donations will help seagrass and seahorses
£10 could help them replant 1 square meter of seagrass;
£20 could help divers monitor the recovery of seagrass beds where advanced mooring systems are installed.
£30 could help them to cultivate 10,000 seagrass plants.
£35 could help advise boaters, walkers and abait collectors on how to protect seagrass beds and other sensitive habits.
£200 could help get old, damaging moorings in seagrass beds removed, ready for the new eco-friendly ones.
The Goal of the Appeal:
The goal is to raise £105,000 to install over 75 advanced moorings that will replace traditional, damaging anchoring methods and enable seagreass to recover.
This petition is to the Government of Queensland, and Care2.com's The Petition Site is running it.
The koala could go extinct within our lifetime, according to researchers. This is mainly because state governments have been much too lenient when it comes to clear-cutting in the koala's last remaining habitats.
For instance, between 2012 and 2016, five thousand koalas died becuase of habitat lost, and 94% of them died because of rural deforetation. Koalas in Queensland are losing ground to huge stores and skyscapers thanks to the threat of new developments.
Unfortunately, the previous premier rolled back tree-clearing laws.
The new premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk is thinking about introducing new measures which would put an end to endless destruction of the koalas habitat.
This petition is about speaking up for koalas, being their voice, and asking the Palaszcuk government to pass new tree-clearing restrictions today. The koalas can't speak up for themeslves - they have no voice. We need to be their voice instead.
It’s a popular tourist area, known for its mountain gorillas. It covers 3,000 square miles, and its three sectors – north, central and south – have an unrivalled diversity of landscapes and ecosystems. It was founded back in 1925 as Parc Albert, and it was the first national park to be established on the African continent, primarily to protect the mountain gorillas who were living in the forests of the Virunga Massif. The park is a Unesco World Heritage site. It is home to several hundred species of birds, mammals and reptiles.
The world’s entire population of critically endangered mountain gorillas live only ini the Virunga Massife and Bwindi. The Virunga National Park is home to about a third of these wonderful animals. Currently it is estimated that there are about 1,000 mountain gorillas. Find out more about the park’s history here
There are currently over 700 male and female rangers actively protecting the park and the communities surrounding its borders. And let’s not forget the dogs who are part of the Virunga National Park Canine Unit, an invaluable part of the team.
Urgent funds are needed:
To protect the endangered mountain gorillas
To support the rangers
To support the families of rangers who have fallen in the line of duty. Over 175 rangers have been killed in the line of duty.
To deliver essential disease prevention efforts
Challenge such as this need heroes and each and every ranger is one, fighting to protect these amazing animals and give their families an income at the same time. Rangers do an extremely dangerous job, putting their lives on the line every day, to look after wildlife. Find out about the Rangers Project here.
Leonardo DiCaprio has contributed to a new fund which aims to support the Virunga National Park. Earth Alliance, a group co-founded by DiCaprio, has donated part of the initial £1.65 million funding. Di-Caprio was an executive producer on the documentary Virunga. (It was nominated for an Oscar in 2014.)
Its closure to tourists due to the coronavirus has resulted in a considerable loss of income.
Covid-19 poses an existential threat to the gorillas – WWF has warned that they are at risk of catching the coronavirus because they share 98% of their DNA with humans
A month after the park was closed, 12 park rangers, a drive and four members of the local community were killed in a terrible attack by 60 militiamen, who ambused a group of civilians being protected by the rangers. At the time, a statement from the park said it was an attack on local civilians, rather than the rangers themselves.
The rangers are racing against the clock to protect the local communities around the park and the gorillas.
You can help:
You can help by spreading the word - following the Virunga Park on social media and making a donation
$8 funds a pair of new boots for a ranger
$32 funds a ranger for a day (including family health insurance)
$50 funds a month of support for the widow and children of a Fallen Ranger
$150 funds two weeks of food and supplements for an orphan gorilla
$300 funds an hour of flight time for an anti-poaching patrol
$500 funds a one day tactical elephant protection operation
$1,000 funds a comprehensive sweep and remove of deadly snares in the mountain gorilla sector.
